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Mac users have been able to create groups in Contacts (formerly Address Book) for years. It's a wonderful way to group together various contacts so that you can send an email or message to all the parties in question by addressing it to the group instead of the individuals. There's one little issue with the Contacts app in iOS, however -- you can't create groups on your iPhone or iPad.

While this is not a problem for Mac owners, who can just launch Contacts on their Macs to create a group to be synced through iCloud to their iOS devices, it would seem to be a real issue for Windows or Linux users who also own iOS devices, since there is no native Apple/iCloud Contacts app for those platforms.

Actually, there's an easy solution -- using the iCloud.com Contacts app from any desktop or laptop web browser, since it (like the Mac app) provides a way to create groups. We'll show you how in the video below, so you can put together that "Christmas Cards" group in time for the holidays next year.

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address bookcontactshow-tohowtoicloudiOSvideo tipsvideotipsMon, 16 Dec 2013 16:00:00 -050016|20789538http://www.tuaw.com/2013/04/29/adding-copy-to-clipboard-rollovers-in-contacts-app-via-applescri/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=TUAW.com&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/04/29/adding-copy-to-clipboard-rollovers-in-contacts-app-via-applescri/http://www.tuaw.com/2013/04/29/adding-copy-to-clipboard-rollovers-in-contacts-app-via-applescri/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=TUAW.com#commentsApple's Contacts app includes a lot of great shortcuts for initiating different forms of communication. Just click an email address, phone number or URL field label to display a list of available options. You can send an email, show a phone number in large type or start a FaceTime call, for example. Curiously, one shortcut that's absent from most of these popups is one for copying the email address, phone number, URL, etc. to the clipboard. Mailing addresses are one exception, as they provide an option to copy a mailing label. But, other fields don't include this option. Sure, you could just select a phone number, email address, URL, etc., and press Command+C to copy it. But, what fun is that? It sure would be nice if there were just more handy copy-to-clipboard shortcuts instead. With the help of AppleScript, you can add your own. Here's how...

Writing the Script

The following steps demonstrate how to add a Copy to Clipboard shortcut to phone number fields in the Contacts app. If you have any trouble following along, you can download the complete script here, along with ones for email address and URL fields too.

1. Launch AppleScript Editor (in /Applications/Utilities)

2. Create a new script document and enter the following code:

Note: If you want to create a version of this script for email address or URL fields, just change the action property handler to return the appropriate field type, i.e.,

on action property
return "email"
end action property

or...

on action property
return "url"
end action property

Installing and Using the Script

In order for the script you created to appear in the Contacts app, it needs to be saved in the proper place.

1. Quit Contacts if it's running.

2. Save the script you created as Contacts > Copy Phone to Clipboard.scpt, in script format, into the ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins folder in your Home directory. If this folder doesn't already exist, go ahead and create it.

Now, just relaunch the Contacts app. When you click on a phone number field label, you should see a new option for copying the phone number to the clipboard. Now, repeat the steps above for email addresses and URLs to enhance the Contacts app even further.

This marks my last scheduled post for the TUAW for a bit. Hopefully, you'll see more of me here in the future. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter to say "Hello," ask a scripting question or two, suggest a future topic, etc. Until next time, Happy Scripting!

Update: So after a few weeks of testing Brewster I started to notice some bad things. First, contacts started merging or disappearing. Most notably: My dad. Since I'm a "junior" the Brewster support staff said it was likely due to the similarity of our names. Unfortunately his contact worked fine before, and trying to extract his data meant I was left with a fragmented look at his contact info -- and his photo never re-appeared. In fact, a number of photos started disappearing. Brewster staff (before abandoning my support requests entirely) claimed this wasn't possible, but the evidence was right there in front of me. As a result, I must withdraw my support and recommendation for Brewster until the service can address the nagging problems that came from its clumsy attempts to merge your data in unpredictable ways.

As a result, Brewster is the first app to be featured in our new series "When good apps go bad." Sorry folks, this one's just not ready for prime time yet.

Preface

I had Brewster on my iPhone for a while, liked the interface and concept, but eventually abandoned it because it didn't work into my daily routine. The interface used big photos and tiles, plus an algorithm to see who you speak to on a regular basis to surface contacts you haven't spoken to in a while.

A new update adds some powerful integration by setting up a profile on your iPhone, and connecting to CalDav, letting Brewster connect your contacts and feed them to you in one easy app. Finding people across networks has never been easier, nor prettier. Today Brewster nearly saved the day with its powerful contact surfacing tools.

Brewster to the rescue

As many of you may have seen, we had a weird flag for malware pop up on TUAW recently. Just a couple of pages, but since Google only appears to have an avenue to complain for those who have a Google Webmaster account (which we do not at TUAW for the simple fact that our parent company, AOL, doesn't really need one -- we have plenty of our own tools). Since the two pages in question were showing as blacklisted by Google, I decided to ping anyone I'd ever met who happened to work at Google to find a solution. After all, TUAW isn't spewing malware and this is just such a simple fix -- surely someone could just ring up Matt Cutts and let him know of this oversight?

Enter Brewster, which keeps track of contacts across jobs. I tried a couple of searches in my Gmail, but honestly it's a mess. Like MG Siegler, I loathe email. The only thing worse is contacts management, which you would think would be better in 2013. We have warp drive in sight but I'm still exporting three-letter files to move my contacts around? Brewster, after requesting you install a profile (more on this in a moment), ends this problem.

By giving Brewster access to my info Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more, plus installing a profile on my device, I was able to quickly and easily find some friends from the old Weblogs days who work at Google. Within minutes I'd sent a few emails off, and queries were being made. In the end I think it was an unsung hero at AOL who got through, but Brewster, for me, made it possible to find those needles in the noodle soup that is my contact management.

Pros

Complete search solution. Seriously, this is wonderful. No longer do I need to rummage in 3 services, now I can check all at once, easily.

Big photos for calls. I thought my contacts had this covered, but Brewster somewhat magically enhanced the photos I have for the callers I got. It won't help my productivity, but it's nice.

Send emails from Brewster. I was able to save a lot of time and email directly within Brewster, while keeping one list of contacts open. No "connecting" various services in weird ways.

Cons

While the photos of who you're losing touch with are nice and sometimes useful, I found that the data on the main screen is sometimes incorrect or contradictory. I connect with different people in different ways, and Brewster is just learning how that all ties together. I expect this will be an area for growth and focus for the company as the connections we forge are quite important (ask Google Now and Google Glass).

You'll have to install a profile. I know this will scare some people, because the Settings on your iPhone are involved and, to the uninitiated, it will appear as though there may be malware being installed on your iPhone. But you're safe -- the profile is signed by Network Solutions, a leader in online security, and it's so you do have a secure connection.

I have to wonder if keeping the profile going will be a monetization avenue for Brewster in the future, but for now the company isn't talking about money (which may also worry some).

About the profile

I spoke to the CEO and founder, Steve Greenwood, who explained a bit more about the profile and the purpose of using CalDav instead of having a user monkey with Settings manually. He explained that Google also does this, and by Brewster serving as your contact server, none of your local contacts are written over. As someone who has had a lot of problems with contacts disappearing, this pleases me.

More importantly, CalDav is secure. Brewster is acting as a go-between, handling both the authentication and the management of different systems in the background. While it may seem complicated, the end result for users is a unified address book and up-to-date contacts with pictures and data you may have not seen before.

Bottom line

Brewster, when fully installed on your iPhone, is the most powerful and amazing contact app I've ever seen. If you dig into it, you can actually learn things about your contacts. I tried searching "google" and found not only current employees, but people whom I knew who were tagged "google" -- and I have no idea how that happened. Welcome to a powerful tool in your productivity belt, especially if you have more contacts than time to manage them.

Smartphone users are well immersed in a world of contact syncing, media sharing, VoIP and video calls. They're just not used to finding everything in one place, let alone guaranteeing that any carrier-level features will work with other phones and providers. MetroPCS is hoping to put itself ahead on that front by offering a potentially universal fix. It's the first carrier anywhere to launch the Rich Communication Services standard on LTE, which provides a perpetually synced contact list that serves as the launching pad for everything else. Early adopters of the Joyn-branded service can chat through text, share media (including during calls) and start up WiFi voice or video calls without needing yet another specialized service and the extra sign-in that goes with it. Right now, the very young state of RCS on LTE leaves it behaving more like the isolated services it's trying to replace -- on MetroPCS, only those with the Galaxy Attain 4G and an after-the-fact Joyn app download can get the experience as intended. As long as more devices and carriers come onboard, though, the technology might be the long-term key to pulling us away from fenced-off conversations in Google Talk or Skype.

The marvelous folks from Mountain View never seem to take a break from working on tools to help make almost everyone's life easier -- even if some of these folks happen to be on the other side. Today, Google announced it was adding CardDAV to the list of open protocols it currently supports to access Gmail and Calendar from mobile apps and devices alike, noting that with the recent adaptation it'll be easier for third-party clients -- such as iOS -- to access and sync with Google Contacts. Better yet, the company posted a full set of instructions on how users can do just that, which you will find at the source link below.

In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has added extra protection around the address book and restricted apps from gaining access to the contents without a user's permission. This added security is beneficial for users, but it poses a communication problem for developers who need to access the address book for feedback or crash reports, says Daniel Jalkut in a post on his Red Sweater blog.

Developers who generate a bug report or feedback request within their app must deal with the foreboding dialog shown above when they try to populate the fields of a contact form using data contained in the "Me" card. Not only does the dialog confuse the user, it also makes it appear that the app is doing something nefarious when it's actually not.

Working off a tip from Panic founder Cabel Sasser, Jalkut has devised a way to add a friendly tone to the dialog that'll explain to users why the app needs to pull information from the address book. According to Jalkut, you can modify the Info.plist file and add a string for the NSContactsUsageDescription key. This key will tell the user why the app needs the contact information and will appear the first time the app tries to gain access to the address book.

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address bookAddressBookdaniel jalkutDanielJalkutMountain LionMountainLionOS XOsXred sweater softwareRedSweaterSoftwaresecurityTue, 31 Jul 2012 09:00:00 -040016|20289791http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/17/skype-confirms-fix-rolling-out-for-instant-messaging-bug/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/17/skype-confirms-fix-rolling-out-for-instant-messaging-bug/http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/17/skype-confirms-fix-rolling-out-for-instant-messaging-bug/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget#commentsWhen one of your main services throws up a pretty embarrassing bug, you're going to want to squash that quick. Skype has stepped up and done just that, according to its blog. The hotfix will be rolling out for version 5.10 for Windows, 5.8 for Mac, 4.0 for Linux and 1.2 for Windows Phone. Skype was also quick to point out that not all clients (and therefore users) were affected. If you were on 5.9 for Windows, version 2.8 for Android or Skype 4.0 for iOS, then the firm assures you that you won't be affected. The official line is that the fix should start arriving in the next couple of days, so still best to keep a lid on those office gossip chats for now. Let us know if you start getting the update in the comments below.

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address bookAddressBookbugchatcontact listContactListfiximinstant messageInstantMessageinternet chatInternetChatmessagemessagingprivacyskypetext messagetext messagingTextMessageTextMessagingTue, 17 Jul 2012 09:28:00 -040021|20279721http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/16/skype-privacy-bug/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/16/skype-privacy-bug/http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/16/skype-privacy-bug/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget#commentsOnly a handful of Skype users have reported this problem over at the support forum, but what they're complaining about is pretty hair-raising. They say that, following an update in June, instant messages have repeatedly and unintentionally been forwarded to random people in their contact lists. In other words, third-parties are seeing stuff they were never meant to see, which constitutes a serious breach of privacy. Skype now tells us it's aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Here's the official response in full:

"We are aware that in rare circumstances IM's between two contacts could be sent to an unintended third contact. We are rolling out a fix for this issue in the next few days and will notify our users to download an updated version of Skype."

If you've yet to try the Release Preview of Windows 8 for yourself, fear not, because along with our detailed impressions, Microsoft is catering to your trepidation with a series of blog entries on its MSDN site that explore the nitty-gritty details of its latest OS. In the latest installment, we're given an in-depth preview of the People app, a cloud-connected address book that promises to be one of the many centerpieces in the Metro environment. For starters, Windows Phone users are bound to feel right at home, as the address book relies on cloud services to populate the entries from sources such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Twitter. Not only does this ensure that one's address book is always accessible and up-to-date -- friend removals come to mind -- it also brings quick access to social feeds via the "What's new" section and lets you keep tabs on specific contacts via live tiles on the home screen.

By leveraging APIs known as contracts, Windows 8 makes the address book available to other apps such as Mail and Messaging, along with other programs written to take advantage of the service. One of the hurdles Microsoft is working to overcome with its cloud-connected services are the inevitable duplicate contacts. Currently, Windows 8 does a pretty good job of identifying and linking multiple accounts to one individual, but for the rare exceptions, the company will soon add the ability to manually edit and link various accounts to specific contacts. Naturally, with such a connected approach, security could be an issue for businesses, and for this reason, one's Exchange contacts will not be synced with their Microsoft account. In this scenario, users must manually add their Exchange accounts for each device they use. Take one look at the length of the MSDN blog entry and you'll be left wondering how Microsoft employees find time to code, but it makes for a worthwhile read.

Smartphones have revolutionized how we communicate and the way we create, share and consume content. Yet there's one aspect of using these devices that remains stuck in the last millennium, and that's the calling experience -- yes, apparently some people still make phone calls. Sure, there are plenty of VoIP and video calling apps out there, but few are simple and beautiful.

Enter Sidecar, a free app which aims to reinvent the way we make phone calls by adding messaging as well as real-time video, photo, location and contact sharing to that antiquated calling experience. It achieves this through an intuitive and polished user interface plus a handful of standards such as SIP and XMPP. Phone calls between Sidecar users are free anywhere in the world -- the app even supports free WiFi calling to any number in the US or Canada.

While Sidecar's been available in beta on Android for several weeks, it's launching on iOS today with support for the iPhone and iPod touch. We've been using the app on and off for a few days on several handsets, including a Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ and an iPhone 4S and it works exactly as described. Looking for additional details? Check out the demo video and full PR after the break.

So, you've changed your phone number to escape that stalker (look, we're sorry, we just wanted to sell you a pyramid scheme), but how do you let all 104 of your remaining friends know without manually texting 'em? The answer lies in Apple's newly granted patent, which aims to end the tedium by having your device recognize when your number switches and automatically send an updated contact entry to everyone in your address book. Of course, there's nothing in the claims to say it's discriminatory, so now we've got your number again -- have you changed your mind about that pyramid scheme?

If you're looking for an alternative address book for your Mac, you should take a closer look at Cobook. It's been featured by Lifehacker, TechCrunch and most recently Swiss Miss. It's defining features are its simple UI, intelligent search and social network integration which updates your contacts using information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The latest "-gate" suffixed controversy, the so-called "Address Bookgate," has surrounded the popular social networking app Path. After Path was found to collect data on users' contacts without prompting users for permission, CEO Dave Morin apologized and the app was updated to change the behavior.

That revelation, and the backlash that followed, has sent ripples throughout the iOS developer community. Path's update sets its app to explicitly request user permission to store contacts; Instagram and several other iOS apps followed suit.

In what's becoming a predictable trend any time the words "Apple" and "privacy" are mentioned together, two US Congress members have sent a letter to Apple asking the company to explain the situation (hat tip to The Next Web). "This incident raises questions about whether Apple's iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts," Congressmen Henry A. Waxman and G.K. Butterfield write. Following that, the representatives voice the very questions that have been raised:

Please describe all iOS App Guidelines that concern criteria related to the privacy and security of data that will be accessed or transmitted by an app.

Please describe how you determine whether an app meets those criteria.

What data do you consider to be "data about a user" that is subject to the requirement that the app obtain the user's consent before it is transmitted?

To the extent not addressed in the response to question 2, please describe how you determine whether an app will transmit "data about a user" and whether the consent requirement has been met.

How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit "data about a user"?

Do you consider the contents of the address book to be "data about a user"?

Do you consider the contents of the address book to be data of the contact? If not, please explain why not. Please explain how you protect the privacy and security interests of that contact in his or her information.

How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit information from the address book? How many of those ask for the user's consent before transmitting their contacts' information?

You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis. Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information.

AllThingsD reports that Apple has issued a brief response: "Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines. We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."

This response may address user concerns over the potential privacy issue, but Congress may not be satisfied so easily. Waxman and Butterfield (both of whom chair committees on commerce) have given Apple until the end of February to respond to the inquiry.

From our perspective as iOS users, this means we can likely look forward to more pop-up dialogs every time we open certain kinds of iOS apps for the first time. We're already prompted to give user permission for location services and push notifications, and now it seems we'll be prompted for access to Address Book contacts as well.

Hopefully iOS developers can write these dialogs in a way that encourages users to pay attention to them rather than blindly tapping "Allow" several times just to rush past the preliminaries and actually use the apps they've downloaded.

A week ago today, developer Arun Thampi detailed on his blog how the Path app for iOS accessed users' contact information and uploaded that data to Path's servers -- all without any explicit permission granted on the user's part. That sparked quite the firestorm, including investigations into which other apps behaved in a similar manner (quite a few, it turns out), and some responses from a number of other app makers -- Twitter, for one, has acknowledged that it does store users' contact data, but that it now plans to adjust its app to more clearly inform users of that behavior. Now, Apple itself has also responded, with spokesman Tom Neumayr telling AllThingsD that "apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines," but that it is "working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release." Still no word on when we can expect that software update, though.

Incidentally, this news comes on the same day that Congressmen Henry Waxman and G.K. Butterfield sent a letter to Apple over the issue, asking that it respond to a number of privacy-related questions no later than February 29th. That letter can be found in full after the break.

I want to set Siri geofenced reminders for my kids' bus stop and a few other locations. The problem is that I live in a rural area, and these places don't have street addresses. What can I do? I want to be able to remind my wife to pick up milk and butter after she's done picking up the kids. Can you help?

Your loving nephew,

Kaelin

Dear Kaelin,

Auntie has some bad news for you. As far as the TUAW team can reckon, the Contacts app doesn't support GPS locations. That means that you can't use geofenced reminders for arbitrary locations beyond "when I leave this location."

If you try to drop a pin in Maps, you'll quickly discover that rural locations plus the GPS coordinates plus the address book don't add up to a coherent location solution. Maps tries to find a street address to match the coordinates, and that address may be miles away, especially if you try to mark a camp site in a large state park.

Since Contacts is built on street addresses, not coordinates, your locations will be off -- sometimes way off.

For now, Auntie recommends the "when I leave this location" workaround if it's you doing the errands, and encourages all her nieces and nephews to file a feature request with Apple.

My personal address book has no shame. I have contacts for people I haven't spoken to in years, contacts for people who I met at tech conferences, contacts for schools, for local stores, for repairmen, and so forth. It's one big old happy jumbled mess.

I'm cool with that.

When I want Siri and Reminders to be able to trigger a location-based event, I just throw it into my address book where it joins the hundreds of other often sad and neglected entries.

I believe this makes makes me a type "N" on Myers Brigg or something like that.

Not everyone will be happy with this kind of unstructured approach and an overflowing address book, or this kind of lack of organization.

If you want to be able to to set location reminders without messing up your address book, TUAW reader Will Herbert has a solution. On your Mac, launch the Address Book application and create two new groups. Call one Contacts and the other Locations.

Drag all your normal contacts into the Contacts group and create a set of location-only contacts in the other. Add stores, offices, dry cleaners, supermarkets, and so forth. These are all places that you don't necessarily want in your day-to-day contacts list.

Each of these is still available in the address book and therefore still available to Siri and Reminders. At the same time, they won't clutter up your standard contacts.

Score one for the Felixes of the world. The rest of us Oscars will trudge on as we were.

Here's a simple mnemonic: "vCards good, Address Book Archives VERY VERY BAD." Sorry for yelling, but it's true. Address Book Archives can only do one thing: replace your entire address book.

Why is that bad? Let's assume you backup every Monday, and then some Friday you realize that you accidentally deleted some contacts. If your only backup is an Address Book Archive, you have to hope that you won't lose any important information that you've added or changed since Monday.

If you had an export of your vCards, you could merge it with your existing information:

The only real "trick" to exporting vCards is that you have to be sure to select all contacts before choosing File » Export » Export vCard...

Also, if you want to see what Address Book is going to do, click the "Review Duplicates..." button (above) and then click "Keep Both" to see the Old vs New information:

vCards are also a good choice because they can be used by a variety of different programs, whereas Address Book Archives are only useful for Mac OS X's Address Book app

If you're over a certain age and live in the USA you may remember the days when giant books filled with addresses and phone numbers were thrown at your house each year by Ma Bell. Unlike countries elsewhere, such as France, where computers took over the task of finding phone numbers before cell phones were popular, the White Pages (and their paid cousin, the Yellow Pages) were a fixture of American life for many years.

Of course, now we have smartphones. But if someone isn't in your address book on your iPhone, you can use the WhitePages app to find their info. The WhitePages app does more than reverse lookup, but don't take my word for it. Check out the demo video below to see it in action.

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address bookAddressBookapp demoAppDemocontactsiPhonephoneutilityvideowhitepagesTue, 19 Jul 2011 12:00:00 -040016|19994738http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/05/gmail-now-stores-up-to-25-000-contacts-for-the-insanely-popular/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/05/gmail-now-stores-up-to-25-000-contacts-for-the-insanely-popular/http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/05/gmail-now-stores-up-to-25-000-contacts-for-the-insanely-popular/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget#comments
Are you quietly proud of the girth of your social circle? Do you think having 146 Facebook buddies is impressive? Snap out of it, saddo. Some Gmail users have thousandsupon thousands of contacts in their list -- so many, in fact, that they've been begging Google to increase its 10,000 limit. The Big G has now obliged these jabbering fiends, yanking the limit up to 25,000 and also boosting available cloud storage to 128KB per contact instead of 32KB. We imagine this could be of some help to business users perhaps, or those nice strangers who send out stock tips. But for the rest of us, the gesture is about as inconsequential as the professionally good-looking.

Former TUAW-writer (but forever in our hearts) David Chartier tried using OS X's built-in Address Book sync to Google Contacts and had a verybadexperience which ended with him turning it off almost immediately. I had a similar-but-different bad experience. In my case, OS X seemed to simply stop syncing to Google altogether, despite the fact that the setting was still enabled.

Some of the difficulty is due to the fact that Google has differences and limitations on contact information compared to OS X, which complicated syncing. I have also not been able to find any reliable way to tell when the last sync took place (it's supposed to happen every hour on 10.6), and no way to manually trigger a sync on demand.

Fortunately there's a better solution: SpanningSync. SpanningSync will sync iCal to Google Calendar and your Address Book to Google Contacts. Even better, it has a setting that I adore (shown above), called "Never Change Address Book."

This tells SpanningSync to upload changes that I make on my Mac to Google, but don't sync anything back from Google. No, this isn't "true sync" but it suits my purposes fine. If I want to add contact information, I always do it on my Mac or iPhone, not on Google. The only reason I want my contact information on Google is to use with Google Voice. If you prefer to make all of your changes on Google, you can make it a "one-way sync" that way, or make it a two-way sync.

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address bookAddressBookbackup.appcontact syncContactSyncgoogleMacspanning syncSpanningSyncWed, 09 Mar 2011 10:30:00 -050016|19873364http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/22/busycal-info-panel-preferences-give-you-more-event-options/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=TUAW.com&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/22/busycal-info-panel-preferences-give-you-more-event-options/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/22/busycal-info-panel-preferences-give-you-more-event-options/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=TUAW.com#commentsBusyCal is what iCal should have been. It continues to impress me the longer I use it, and recently I found a way to customize it that I did not know about previously.

Event details, like the one shown in the image here, can be customized from a much larger list than what BusyCal shows you by default. To access the Info Panel Preferences, click the small white "i" at the top right of the Event Info panel. (See item #1 in the image here. Note that you can only access these when the panel is floating on its own, not from the BusyCal sidebar.)

There are 18 different fields that you can use, and most of them are self explanatory (you can see an image in the gallery below), but I want to draw your attention to a few that I find very helpful. The first is "my URL" which gives you an easy way to link an event to a person from your address book. Simply drag the name from the address book to the my URL field and a link will be created (see #2 in image). Clicking that link will open their contact information in the Address Book.app.

You can also drag a person (or business) to the Location, Attendees, My Notes, or Notes field. For the latter two, you get more than just a link to their name, you get address and phone number information (see item #3 in image).

While you could use "Attendees" for the same purpose (and that field is shown by default), when you do that, BusyCal wants to know if you want to "invite" them or send them changes whenever you edit the event. That isn't a feature I ever use, so I didn't want to use Attendees, but my URL is almost perfect.

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address bookAddressBookbusycalbusymaccalendarmacpimFri, 22 Oct 2010 07:00:00 -040016|19684023http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/09/tip-hide-sensitive-data-in-address-book/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=TUAW.com&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/09/tip-hide-sensitive-data-in-address-book/http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/09/tip-hide-sensitive-data-in-address-book/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=TUAW.com#comments
Here's an interesting tip from The Apple Blog about hiding sensitive data in plain sight. In this instance, Dave Greenbaum explains how he uses an app like Apple's Address Book to plainly display a credit card number. The catch is that, upon first glance, the record looks like any other collection of contact info. Only Dave knows how to read the data "hidden" inside.

It's not uncrackable, of course, but still a clever idea. Perhaps you could use it to obscure less sensitive data if you'd rather not do it with a credit card. Alternatively, apps like Knox and 1Password offer true encryption and are relatively inexpensive.

Dave's solution is free and something we hadn't thought of. Head over to read the whole post. Nice thinking, Dave!

It's so easy to take Address Book for granted, and yet that simple utility has two absolutely killer features: big phone numbers and simple envelope printing. These features do exactly what their descriptions suggest: display phone numbers in Very, Large, Type -- and print envelopes, complete with your personal return address.

To zoom a phone number, control-click or right-click the number you want to see and choose Large Type from the contextual pop-up. Address Book zooms that number way out, allowing you to see it while dialing, even if you're not standing right next to the computer. I find that it's a lot easier just to show the number to my husband than try to read it out to him. Your spousal success rate may vary.

To print a properly formatted envelope, just insert a standard envelope into your printer. Make sure the address side (and not the flap side) faces the toner cartridge. For me, that is flap side down. My printer, which is pretty darn standard, has an envelope feeding clamp in the single sheet feed. I pop open the single sheet access, adjust the clamp inward to match the envelop size and feed in the envelop flap side down.

In Address Book all I need to do is select a contact and print it. (File > Print). Make sure you've chosen Envelopes from the Style (it's my default), and that Print my address is selected so the return address is properly added to the envelope. If you're using an envelope that's not a standard business layout, choose the proper layout. Address Book supports most common envelope styles used in North America, Japan, and "International."

Address Book can also print out mailing labels, lists, and a pocket address book. See the Style pop-up for details. For the free contact manager that comes with the OS, it's got moxie.

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address bookAddressBookcontactsenvelopesmac 101Mac101phone numberPhoneNumberThu, 19 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -050016|19246313http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/13/add-apples-free-backup-app-to-your-backup-toolbox/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=TUAW.com&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/13/add-apples-free-backup-app-to-your-backup-toolbox/http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/13/add-apples-free-backup-app-to-your-backup-toolbox/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=TUAW.com#commentsWhen most people think about Apple and backups they probably think about Time Machine or perhaps even Time Capsule. But Apple has a lesser-known application which you might consider using.

The app, simply named Backup, was originally available only to .Mac users, but is now openly available on Apple's website. It lists "MobileMe account" as one of its requirements. If you do not have a MobileMe account, each backup is limited to 100 MB. The good news is that for what I am suggesting, 100 MB will be completely sufficient for most people. Follow along as I use Backup to create a complete and scheduled backup of personal data and settings on my Mac.

First, install and launch the application. Choose Plan > New Plan from the menu.

If you have a MobileMe account, choose the "Personal Data & Settings" option (second from the top), click the "Choose Plan" button, and then skip the next paragraph.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions